Going Down?
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| M.C. Escher's Relativity (1953) |
David offers us descending phrases that literally go down the grid. Each themer is amusingly clued. Let's take a look.
All Downs:
3. Committee members parachuting from an airplane?: DIVING BOARD. Or BOARD members tanking their company. #Enron
9. Feathers during a no-holds-barred pillow fight?: DROPPING DOWN. Did you know there are no-holds-barred pillow fights?
//I learned about it from Ronny Chieng three weeks ago [The Daily Show]
21. Church steeple in hurricane-strength winds?: TIPPING POINT. Also a book by Malcom Gladwell.
27. Ball carrier on a wet football field?: FALLING BACK. The end of Daylight Saving Time. I think this is also a reference to football.
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| Football Positions - there's at least 3 BACKS on the offense. |
Across:
1. Realm surrounded by the Styx: HADES. Styx is the mythical river between ours and the underworld. Being dipped in it will protect you. Just be sure to dip your son's Achilles heal in too.
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| Thetis dipping Achilles in the River Styx |
Styx was also a popular band so the realm coulda been an 'arena'.
Styx - Renegade
6. Didn't release: HELD. Styx released Renegade in '78. I bought the album Pieces of Eight.
10. Preliminary race: HEAT. Royals would warm their steeds on the track before the final race. Now preliminary races are called heats. [cite]
14. Serving a purpose: UTILE. Useful.
15. Gulf States ruler: EMIR. A crossword staple.
16. Pennsylvania city on I-90: ERIE. ibid.
17. Piercing site: NAVEL. Ouch!
18. Plot-heavy work: MELODRAMA. Nothing mellow about it; just all drama.
20. Table protector: TRIVET. Protects your table or countertop from hot dishes.
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| Pretty |
22. Swift: RAPID. Who else was thinking Jonathan the satirist first? Misty?
23. Moral lapse: SIN. You throw the first stone.
24. Trivial thing: NIT. Sometimes they're picked here at The Corner.
26. Audit firm exec: CPA. Certified Public Accountant. I waited on perps to make sure it wasn't CFO (Chief Financial Officer).
27. Non-magical source of invisibility: FOG. Cute.
30. Sales meeting diagrams: GRAPHS. #DeathByPowerPoint.
33. Enter en masse: INVADE.
35. Udon kin: SOBA. The difference between udon & soba. //The TL;DR - wheat flour (udon) v. buckwheat (soba).
37. "To __ it mildly": PUT. The harsh truth - GLOSSY'd over.
38. Affix with a hammer: NAIL IN. If your only tool is a hammer, every job is a nail.
Pete Seeger
39. MBA field: ECON. Master of Business Administration and Economics.
40. Choosing from a lineup: ID'ING. I'm not sure how to punctuate ID'ING. It's IDentifying the perpetrator from a lineup. A Dragnet staple.
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| Jack Webb & Harry Morgan |
42. Fail to enunciate: SLUR. Elide is a letter to long.
43. Make tidy: NEATEN. Hide the mess; I hear Mom!.
45. Curtain holder: ROD. Yep.
46. News magazine since 1923: TIME. It's TIME they stopped Person of the Year, no?
47. Loose garment: SARONG.
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| Sarong |
48. The 1973 Mets' "Ya Gotta Believe!," e.g.: SLOGAN. With Willie Mays, Tom Seaver, Rusty Staub, Cleon Jones, et.al. managed by Yogi, "Ya Gotta Believe." They lost the World Series to Oakland's A's.
50. Finish: END. Sorry readers, I'm not even close.
51. Tailless simian: APE. I waited on the perps 'cuz I was thinkin' "man."
53. Leatherwork tool: AWL. I call mine a pokie-tool.
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| Awww, these are real nice. |
54. Controversial agribusiness letters: GMO. Genetically Modified Organism. While some folks are afraid of 'Franken Foods,' science feeds the world.
57. Treat with disdain: SCORN. Like some folks at me after my above comment? ;-)
59. "I've seen worse": NOT BAD. "I've had worse." [Monty Python - The Black Knight (@3:10)]
61. Words from the weary: I'M SO TIRED. Me on Friday afternoons.
65. Play group reminder: SHARE. #Mine!
From Finding Nemo
66. Midday: NOON.
67. "You've Got Mail" director Ephron: NORA.
Trailer
68. Political leader?: SOCIO. Prefix for 'political.' Sociopolitical is combination of of social and political factors.
69. Agrees quietly: NODS. Smile & Wave boys... Smile & wave.
From DreamWorks' Madagascar
70. Took steps: TROD. Cute.
71. Whitehorse's territory: YUKON. Whitehorse is the largest city in the Canada's Yukon Territory.
Down:
1. Looks (for): HUNTS.
2. Classic arcade name: ATARI. So much misspent-youth INSERTing COINS. APM's How I Built This: From Pong to Chuck E. Cheese. [47m]
3. [See: theme]
4. Alt.: ELEV. ALTitude / ELEVation.
5. Gomez of "Only Murders in the Building": SELENA. If you have Hulu, this show is a must-see.
6. Garment edge: HEM.
7. Like a retired prof.: EMER. Emeritus. Like Misty & OMK.
8. Amethyst hue: LILAC. A sweet lady on my paper route had lilac bushes. The smell of those in the Spring -- sugar in your nose.
9. [See: theme]
10. Bunch of buffalo: HERD. I heard that.
11. Pitching stat: ERA. Earned Run Average. This is the number of runs scored against a pitcher per nine innings pitched. i.e (9 x earned runs)/innings pitched. A good pitcher has an ERA below 3. An Ace's ERA is typically less than 2. #Baseball!
12. Objective: AIM. Pitchers AIM for the strike-zone; batters AIM for the fences.
13. Leaves in a bag: TEA. DAB didn't fool me but for 7 seconds.
19. "Outlander" series novelist Gabaldon: DIANA. Perps for the win.
21. [See: theme]
25. Impact sound: THUD. Who can't think of Wile E. Coyote here?
28. Intense dislike: ODIUM. ? Odium (n.) general or widespread hatred or disgust directed at someone as a result of their actions. Oh, OK.
29. Britcom or bromance: GENRE. British Comedies and (male) buddys who are close.
31. Wound up costing: RAN TO. Add the window-etching, under-body rust protection, extended-warranty...
32. Arouses: STIRS.
34. Panoramic view: VISTA. The views around Cinque Terre blew me away.
35. Intuit: SENSE. I feel this clue/answer has something going for it.
36. Setting for much of "Aquaman": OCEAN. He's a fishORman, right?
//Eat your heart out, Ray-O :-)
41. The Big Easy, for short: NOLA. A CSO to "you know who" and one of the best places in America to visit. The Bourbon Orleans hotel is *chef's kiss*.
44. Put on the books: ENACT. Oh, not a loss or gain | red nor black ink, but a law. As if we needed another...
49. Shiny print: GLOSSY. Arlo ran into problems with the 27 8x10 color GLOSSY prints with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one.
For being a litterbug.
Eventually, he was on the Group "W" bench. [See: Alice's Restaurant]
52. Mistake: ERROR. C.C.'s for letting me blog another crossword puzzle :-)
//Love to you, C.C. & Boomer.
55. NHL great Lemieux: MARIO. Thank you perps. Read more at Wikipedia.
56. Ancient Greek theater: ODEON. We disdain these 'cuz... Oh, not ODIUM. #Untie!
57. "I Will Wait" band Mumford & __: SONS.
58. Fictional Wolfe: NERO. I've never read the books but the TV show on A&E was good.
60. Second person of old: THOU. Thy was too short.
61. Travel guide listing: INN. One year, for our anniversary, we went leaf-peeping in VT. DW always finds the best places to stay.
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| The INN at Round Barn Farm |
62. Dairy farm noise: MOO. On that same trip, we hit Ben & Jerry's dairy and creamery. They have real cows at the factory! But, the cows were lowing.
63. Landscaping layer: SOD. Also, derogatory UK slang.
64. Pops: DAD. Pop is my 2nd-best friend. DW is #1.
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| The Grid |
My Recap:
WO: ODEOm
ESP: ODIUM
Fav: Hard to pick one. It was just a peach to break DOWN the puzzle for y'all.
Now it's your turn to do the same.
Cheers, -T
